Summer Salads – Potato

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This is my riff on Simply LaKita’s Southern Potato Salad. Her recipe is as delicious as it is straightforward. You will have your potato salad made in no time at all. I use the same base materials and steps, but I add two other ingredients. If my additions scare you, trust me when I say LaKita knows what she’s doing, so you can check out her original recipe instead. 🙂

Taco Potato Salad:
5 Russet Potatoes, peeled, diced
Half a medium sized mixing bowl of cold water + 1/2 tea salt

Prep and rest your potatoes in the mixing bowl as you peel and dice them up. Rinse the diced potatoes twice with cold water. Dump into a pot with water to boil. When the water hits its boiling point, add 1-2 teaspoons of salt. Always salt your starches!

Rinse out the mixing bowl using cold water. Add some ice and add some cold water. Drain the pot water after the potatoes hit fork tender stage. Drop the potatoes immediately into the mixing bowl to come stop the cooking and chill the potatoes.

3 Eggs, room temperature
1 tea White Vinegar
Half a small sized mixing bowl of cold water + ice

Bring eggs up to boil in water + vinegar, and then drop to a simmer. Cover and let them cook for 11 mins. Remove the eggs immediately and drop into the iced water bath to rest 10 mins before peeling. Smash both ends on all of the eggs before carefully getting fingernails under the membrane to smoothly remove the shell fragments. Wipe the eggs off on a paper towel before chopping up.

Dump the potatoes and egg chops into the rinsed out mixing blow and add the dressing:

1/2 C Mayo
2 Tbsp Relish
1 Tbsp Yellow Mustard
1+ Tea Taco Seasoning Blend
1/2 Tea Pickle Brine
S&P

Mix this all together, cover, and chill to marry everything together for roughly 4 hours.

Mocktails

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Millionaire Sour:
2 oz (60 mL) each: Lemon Simple Syrup / Ginger Ale
1/4 C Crushed Ice
1/4 oz (7 mL) Grenadine Syrup
Lemon Slice

Yield: 1

Arnold Palmer:
1 C Brewed Black Tea
3/4 C Lemonade
Ice
1 Shot Lemon Simple Syrup
1 Lemon Slice (or thin slice of Jalapeno cut lengthwise)

Yield: 1

Ginger Beer Mule:
1 C Ginger Beer
3 Tbsp Lime Juice
3/4 C 7-Up or Sprite
1/4 C Simple Syrup
Ice
Mint & Lime Wedges

Yield: 2

Jalapeno Mockarita:
1 C Ice
1/2 C OJ
1/4 C Fresh Lime Juice
1 Jalapeno, cut into rings
Salt for rim

Yield: 1

Philly Steak Sandwich Inspo

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I can’t find the video I watched a week ago that gave me this idea. In the video, they used chopped up steak, but I had leftover smoked ribs and chicken, so I chopped up both into a mix and used that instead.

I started by frying some chopped onions, and then I added the meat to heat all the way through. Near the end of that, I added some marble cheese shred, gave it a toss and then scooped it into naan bread I steamed to make them pliable.

I added some Poke sauce to the naan and took a bite. I was so good. It will be better when I make this again when I add some veg (I didn’t have any left at this point in the week), and following the traditional Philly Steak, I will add fried green peppers, some lettuce and tomato slices, and then top it all with melted Provolone (or Swiss) cheese and hit with some Kewpie mayo. I can’t wait.

A Very Berry Summer

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I bought a container of price reduced strawberries when we were grocery shopping for bbq food. I gave them an eight min bath in 1/4 C white vinegar and enough water to just top the berries. After draining, I placed them on a clean tea towel to dry.

The former customer of ours that gave us blackberries from his backyard as I was making dinner to let me know he pick another huge yield that day. I dispatched the husband to grab another pint from the nice customer. When he got back, i set up the same vinegar and water bath for the blackberries. I rested them eight mins, drained them, and laid them out to air dry.

From there, I lined each plastic container with a bit of paper towel, and placed the berries back inside them before I found some room in the fridge to eat them this week.

Straight from the Smoker

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It was a beautiful clear day yesterday, so I decided I needed to BBQ some food for the week. I thawed some back ribs I had in the freezer when I woke up, and while that was doing its thing, we headed out to buy some groceries for other items I was planning to smoke.

When we got back, the husband took off on the motorcycle (a rare luxury for him these days), while I fired up the charcoal. I prepped all the food as the fire heated up the coals. I slapped down some pepper cuts, potatoes, chicken breasts, and the ribs to get some colour on the top side before I rolled it over and shoved it over to the indirect side to slow smoke.

While this was happening, I got to enjoy a few hours out on the patio playing on the computer and drinking cold coffee. Ahhh… I was a happy camper. After the food was finished cooking, I brought it all in and get the table ready as the husband was walking in the door. The corn also got smoked but it was the last night I smoked a few mins on each side after microwaving them in their husks for 6 mins to speed everything up.

When the chicken was cool enough to handle, I cut all five breasts differently to target meals for the week. I sliced one and a half breasts into thin slices for the express of making my favourite sanny ever, the Chicken Club. 🙂

The rest of the chicken got cut up into thicker chunks for a Caesar salad for one, and cubes to drop into a pot of hot Butter Chicken sauce tomorrow night for dinner. Yes!

After dinner, I got making up a few meal kits for our lunches the next day. When the corn was fully cold, I dropped a bit of salt over them as well as a small butter pat, so after the corn is heated with the meat, we could roll our corn sections in the salt + butter inside the dish. Worked like a charm.

And the potato in my kit got pierced in a lengthwise line as was as a cross line. I didn’t think it was enough, so I stabbed the rest of the potato top and then used the fork to push it all down to a smushed mash before topping it with some cucumber salad dressing and green onion chops like I did the night before (see above dinner plate).

All in all, I’m liking this bbq weekend stuff. I just wish the weather was more consistently night as opposed to one bbq day every three fricking weeks. Ugh,

My Sausage Fingers Strike Again

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The other night I cooked a pizza for dinner, and as we were sitting down to enjoy a few slices with some soda, my fat sausage fingers got me into trouble again. *le sigh*

As I was reaching for another slice, my knuckle knocked the full glass of Fresca that was in front of the pizza on the cutting board, and this caused it to fall over and hit the hard wood board. It smashed and spilled my drink all over, under, and around the pizza slices, along with a bunch of big and small glass pieces.

I had to throw those slices (mine with the black olives) into the trash and work as fast as possible to mop up the drink that was now flowing all over the dining table as well as the cutting board. *le sigh*

“Would you like a some pizza with your broken glass?” asked the husband.

Smash Big Mac Quesadilla & Seasoned Fries

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We were going to smoke some ribs on the BBQ but time got away from us today and it’s about to rain, so switch of plans for dinner tonight.

I have been thinking about these small tortilla smash burger tacos, but I only have one large tortilla left, so I’m planning to make a quesadilla version for two. I bought some medium ground beef that I’ll season with S&P, garlic powder, and mince some onion into the mix.

Here is the classic Big Mac sauce I’ll be using. I’m renaming it for this meal idea.

Smash Mac Sauce:
1 C Hellman’s Mayo (I have no idea why this makes it taste better but it does)
2 Tbsp: Vlasic’s Relish / White Wine Vinegar
1 Tbsp Yellow Mustard
1 Tea: Regular Paprika / Garlic Powder / Onion Powder